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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/washington/30intel.html?hp
Tapes by C.I.A. Lived and Died to Save Image
By SCOTT SHANE and MARK MAZZETTI
December 30, 2007
WASHINGTON - If Abu Zubaydah, a senior operative of Al Qaeda, died inAmerican hands, Central Intelligence Agency officers pursuing the terroristgroup knew that much of the world would believe they had killed him.
So in the spring of 2002, even as the intelligence officers flew in asurgeon from Johns Hopkins Hospital to treat Abu Zubaydah, who had been shotthree times during his capture in Pakistan, they set up video cameras torecord his every moment: asleep in his cell, having his bandages changed,being interrogated.
In fact, current and former intelligence officials say, the agency's everyaction in the prolonged drama of the interrogation videotapes was promptedin part by worry about how its conduct might be perceived - by Congress, byprosecutors, by the American public and by Muslims worldwide.
That worry drove the decision to begin taping interrogations - and to stoptaping just months later, after the treatment of prisoners began to includewaterboarding. And it fueled the nearly three-year campaign by the agency'sclandestine service for permission to destroy the tapes, culminating in aNovember 2005 destruction order from the service's director, Jose A.Rodriguez Jr.
Now, the disclosure of the tapes and their destruction in 2005 have becomejust the public spectacle the agency had sought to avoid. To the alreadyfierce controversy over whether the Bush administration authorized torturehas been added the specter of a cover-up.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/world/asia/30pakistan.html?hp
Local Pakistani Militants Boost Qaeda Threat
By CARLOTTA GALL
December 30, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The Qaeda network accused by Pakistan's government ofkilling the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is increasingly made up not offoreign fighters but of homegrown Pakistani militants bent on destabilizingthe country, analysts and security officials here say.
In previous years, Pakistani militants directed their energies againstAmerican and NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan and avoidedclashes with the Pakistani Army.
But this year they have very clearly expanded their ranks and turned to adirect confrontation with the Pakistani security forces while also aiming at political figures like Ms. Bhutto, the former prime minister who died when asuicide bomb exploded as she left a political rally on Thursday.
According to American officials in Washington, an already steady stream ofthreat reports spiked in recent months. Many concerned possible plots tokill prominent Pakistani leaders, including Ms. Bhutto, President PervezMusharraf and Nawaz Sharif, another opposition leader.
"Al Qaeda right now seems to have turned its face toward Pakistan andattacks on the Pakistani government and Pakistani people," Defense SecretaryRobert M. Gates told reporters in Washington on Dec. 21.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/opinion/30sun1.html?ref=opinion
Editorial | In Office
Immigration and the Candidates
December 30, 2007
Even by the low standrds of presidential campaigns, the issue of immigrationhas been badly served in the 2008 race. Candidates - and by this we mean theRepublicans, mostly - have been striking poses and offering prescriptionsthat sound tough but will solve nothing. They have distorted or disownedtheir pasts and attacked one another ferociously, but over appearances, notideas - over who can claim to be the authentic scourge of illegalimmigrants, and who is the Lou-Dobbs-Come-Lately
Voters deserve much better than what these candidates have given them. TheDemocrats have done better, though they have not always responded with thecourage and specifics this difficult issue demands. Before voters pick acandidate and a president, they should insist on serious answers toquestions like these:
What should be the role of immigrant labor in our economy? How does thecountry maximize its benefits and lessen its ill effects? Once the border isfortified, what happens to the 12 million illegal immigrants already here?Should they be expelled or allowed to assimilate? How? What about thecompanies that hire them?
And what about the future flow of workers? Should the current system oflegal immigration, with its chronic backlogs and morbid inefficiencies, betweaked or trashed? What is the proper role of state and local governmentsin enforcing immigration laws? And will a national identity card forimmigrants bring on Big Brother for everyone?
.
The first thing to know about the Republicans' immigration debate is that itis not much of a debate. The candidates speak essentially with one voice,calling for a bristling border and stiffer penalties against companies thathire the undocumented. Some call for new instruments of law and order, liketamper-proof ID cards.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/opinion/30sun2.html?ref=opinion
Editoriald: The Poles Get Cold Feet
December 30, 2007
Poland's new government is right to be taking a skeptical second look at theBush administration's proposal to station 10 interceptor missiles there aspart of a European-based missile-defense system. The pragmatic conservativesvoted into power in October want to make sure that the project offers realsecurity benefits to Poland that outweigh its potential diplomatic costs.
The Poles are not the only ones with doubts. Last month, a thousand Czechsmarched through Prague demanding a referendum on whether the system's radarshould be built in the Czech Republic, as the Bush administration wants. InWashington, Congress has voted to withhold money from the entire projectuntil the Poles and the Czechs give final parliamentary approval.
It now seems that the only one with any enthusiasm for the effort isPresident Bush, who continues to argue that the shield is necessary toprotect Europe and the United States from a potential attack by Iran.
Meanwhile, Moscow is using the system as an excuse for its blustering andserial misbehavior. Paying a huge monetary and diplomatic price to respondto a threat that does not yet exist with a system that does not yet work hasalways seemed foolish and counterproductive. Polish and Czech leaders seemedinitially to like the idea because they saw an American military presence ontheir soil as further protection against Russia. Russia's theatrical furyover the plan, coupled with the Bush administration's general decline, hastaken the gloss off.
We don't buy Moscow's crocodile tears about how a handful of interceptorspose a threat to Russia's huge arsenal. But we also don't see the point ofprovoking a state whose help is essential for containing Iran's nuclearambitions. And then there is that other problem: the technology is nowhereeven close to ready.
Moscow shows little interest these days in pressuring Iran to comply withSecurity Council resolutions on the nuclear issue - to the contrary, itunhelpfully began delivering fuel for Iran's Russian-built power reactorearlier this month.
Why not put Russia's intentions to a practical test by seriously exploringPresident Vladimir Putin's offer to share a Russian early-warning radar inAzerbaijan? American officers who have checked out the site have come awayimpressed with its capabilities. A joint United States-Russian militaryoperation on Iran's borders could do a lot to get Tehran to rethink itsnuclear plans
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/opinion/30foner.html?ref=opinion
Op-Ed Contributor: Forgotten Step Toward Freedom
By ERIC FONER
December 30, 2007
WE Americans live in a society awash in historical celebrations. The lastfew years have witnessed commemorations of the bicentennial of the LouisianaPurchase (2003) and the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II (2005).Looming on the horizon are the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth(2009) and the sesquicentennial of the outbreak of the Civil War (2011). Butone significant milestone has gone strangely unnoticed: the 200thanniversary of Jan. 1, 1808, when the importation of slaves into the UnitedStates was prohibited.
This neglect stands in striking contrast to the many scholarly and publicevents in Britain that marked the 2007 bicentennial of that country'sbanning of the slave trade. There were historical conferences, museumexhibits, even a high-budget film, "Amazing Grace," about WilliamWilberforce, the leader of the parliamentary crusade that resulted inabolition.
What explains this divergence? Throughout the 1780s, the horrors of theMiddle Passage were widely publicized on both sides of the Atlantic and by1792 the British Parliament stood on the verge of banning the trade. Butwhen war broke out with revolutionary France, the idea was shelved. Finalprohibition came in 1807 and it proved a major step toward the abolition ofslavery in the empire.
The British campaign against the African slave trade not only launched themodern concern for human rights as an international principle, but todayoffers a usable past for a society increasingly aware of its multiracialcharacter. It remains a historic chapter of which Britons of all origins canbe proud.
In the United States, however, slavery not only survived the end of theAfrican trade but embarked on an era of unprecedented expansion. Americanshave had to look elsewhere for memories that ameliorate our racialdiscontents, which helps explain our recent focus on the 19th-centuryUnderground Railroad as an example (widely commemorated and oftenexaggerated) of blacks and whites working together in a common cause.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/weekinreview/30cave.html?hp
The World: A Marine's Order: Feed the Hand That Bit You
By DAMIEN CAVE
FALLUJA, Iraq
December 30, 2007
CAPT. SEAN MILLER shook his head like a big brother. He and his marines hadjust walked by a cluster of large orange garbage bins, American-bought, fromwhich thieves had ripped the wheels, and now they confronted a cemeteryentrance that Captain Miller had paid an Iraqi contractor to fix. It wasstill broken.
He snapped a photograph and moved on.
It was one more day on the job here in Anbar Province, where fighting hasgiven way to fixing. But reconstruction was hardly the only thing on thecaptain's mind. Falluja's past as the epicenter of the Sunni rebellion waswith him too.
"The road we just walked down, I lost three marines on that road," said thecaptain, a compact 32-year-old company commander from Virginia. "I waswounded in Falluja too, so walking down these streets - it's not easy."
"Reconciliation," he said, eyeing some Iraqi policemen nearby. "It's a hardpill to swallow."
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-palestinians-israel.html
Olmert Warns Palestinians on Security After Attack
By REUTERS
Filed at 8:34 a.m. ET
December 30, 2007
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday ruled outrelaxing Israel's grip on the occupied West Bank until the Palestinians reinin militants after a shooting attack killed two off-duty Israeli soldiers.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's government has condemned Friday'sshooting near Hebron and said it was meeting its security obligations bycarrying out a crackdown in West Bank cities.
Olmert and Abbas agreed at a U.S.-sponsored peace conference last month inAnnapolis, Maryland, to launch negotiations with the goal of reaching astatehood agreement by the end of 2008.
But Olmert has said Israel will not implement any agreement until thePalestinians meet their obligations under the long-stalled "road map" peaceplan to rein in militants in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Citing security concerns, Israel has so far rebuffed U.S. and Westernpressure to remove some of the hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints thatrestrict Palestinian travel in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-YE-Democrats-in-Charge.html
2007: Democrats in Control, but Thwarted
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:16 a.m. ET
December 30, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's a painful irony for Democrats: In the space of ayear, the Iraq war that was the source of party's resurgence in Congressbecame the measure of its impotence.
By the end of the 2007, a Congress controlled by Democrats for the firsttime since 1994 had an approval rating of only 25 percent, down from 40percent last spring. Then the debate over the war split the party and castshadows over other issues, spawning a series of legislative failures andlosing confrontations with President Bush.
What to do about Iraq has turned into a dissing match so far-reaching andnasty that Congress's accomplishments are seen, even by some who run it,through the lens of their failure to override Bush and start bringing thetroops home.
''There is no question that the war in Iraq has eclipsed much of what wehave done,'' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters. ''If you asked me ina phone call, as ardent a Democrat as I am, I would disapprove of Congressas well.''
It's not as if the new Democrat-controlled Congress did nothing during 2007.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/opinion/30krauze.html
Op-Ed Contributor: Humanizing the Revolution
By ENRIQUE KRAUZE
Caracas, Venezuela
December 30, 2007
IF President Hugo Chávez has dreamed of turning Venezuela into a Cuba withoil, the Venezuelans who oppose him have discovered the perfect antidote:the student movement.
At the time of last month's referendum on Mr. Chávez's efforts to remake theConstitution to his liking, I got to know some of the "chamos," as thestudent activists are known. What struck me was not only how effective theywere, but how different their movement was from almost all its manyantecedents in the region.
Most important, the Venezuelans are not calling for socialist revolution,but for liberal democracy. Instead of vindicating the statist ideologies ofthe 20th century or the romantic passions of the 19th, they have embracedclassic 18th-century humanism. "Our struggle is historic," Yon Goicoechea, alaw student at Andrés Bello Catholic University and one of the politicalmovement's leaders, told me as we sat, along with eight of his fellowleaders, in the offices of the independent newspaper El Nacional. They hadbrought with them pads and pens, but I was the one who learned and tooknotes. As Mr. Goicoechea puts it, "Like Martin Luther King, we do not fightagainst a man, we fight for the vindication of civil and human rights foreveryone in Venezuela."
As with the radicals who preceded them, they have genuine concern for thepoor. But they also have concrete plans to develop their country, and theyembody a hope for reconciliation across the brutal divisions of Venezuelansociety.
Student movements have long been a decisive factor in Latin Americanpolitics. The first erupted in Córdoba, Argentina, in 1918, over theseemingly innocent ideal of "university autonomy." In 1921, an InternationalCongress of Students was convened in Mexico; one of its goals was to set upa continent-wide repudiation of Venezuela's dictator, Juan Vicente Gómez. In1928, Venezuelan students tried to overthrow him. They failed, but theirmovement forged the generation responsible for the democratic pact that -despite its many deficiencies and discontinuities - so displeases Mr. Cháveztoday
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/us/politics/30issuesD.html
How to Divine Foreign Policy of Candidates
By DAVID E. SANGER
December 30, 2007
If there is one thing to listen for in judging how the presidentialcandidates would engage with the rest of the world, it may be how they talkabout embracing, changing or abandoning the Bush doctrine.
That doctrine has been interpreted to mean different things at differenttimes by different people, including President Bush and his aides, who madeit up on the fly in the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
But it has evolved from Mr. Bush's black-and-white declaration in 2001 thatcountries are "with us or against us" in battling terrorism, to his decisiona year later to elevate military pre-emption - and by extension, regimechange - to a defense strategy, right up there with containment anddeterrence.
Along with it came dismissive comments about weak-kneed allies and theimportance of never relying on the United Nations for a "permission slip" toact.
Mr. Bush, of course, has strayed far from the doctrine. He is talking, oroffering to talk, to the surviving dictators of what he once labeled an"axis of evil," and he has learned that some allies (read: Pakistan) arewith the United States on Mondays and Wednesdays and absent on Tuesdays andThursdays.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/us/politics/30issuesE.html
Polls Indicate Voter Anxiety on Economy
By DAVID LEONHARDT
December 30, 2007
In a Gallup Poll this month, only 28 percent of respondents said the economywas in excellent or good condition.
It was a remarkable number in several ways. During the most recentrecession, in 2001, that same measure never fell so low. It did not dropbelow 30 percent until 2002 and 2003 (when it also briefly dipped below 20percent), at which point the economy was mired in a jobless recovery and thestock market was about 40 percent below its high.
As 2007 comes to an end, the economy is in much better shape by almost anystandard, but as the poll numbers suggest, economic anxiety could still havea major impact on the presidential campaign.
"The economic mood is grimmer than it has been since 1992," said AndrewKohut, president of the Pew Research Center.
In 1992, Bill Clinton won the White House with a message directed at thenation's economic unhappiness. At the time, the economy was struggling toshake off the effects of the 1990-1 recession.
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WashingtonPost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/29/AR2007122901490.html?hpid=topnews
U.S. Strives to Keep Footing In Tangled Pakistan Situation
By Robin Wright and Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 30, 2007; A24
For the Bush administration, there is no Plan B for Pakistan.
The assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto dramaticallyaltered Pakistani politics, forcing the largest opposition party to find newleadership on the eve of an election, jeopardizing a fragile transition todemocracy, and leaving Washington even more dependent on the controversialPresident Pervez Musharraf as the lone pro-U.S. leader in a nation facinggrowing extremism.
Despite anxiety among intelligence officials and experts, however, theadministration is only slightly tweaking a course charted over the past 18months to support the creation of a political center revolving aroundMusharraf, according to U.S. officials.
"Plan A still has to work," said a senior administration official involvedin Pakistan policy. "We all have to appeal to moderate forces to cometogether and carry the election and create a more solidly based government,then use that as a platform to fight the terrorists. "
U.S. policy remains wedded to Musharraf despite growing warnings fromexperts, presidential candidates and even a former U.S. ambassador toPakistan that his dictatorial ways are untenable. Some contend that Pakistanwould be better off without him.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/12/29/ST2007122901861.html?hpid=topnews
Pakistan at Standstill as Discord and Unrest Grow
Election Delay Considered In Wake of Bhutto's Killing
By Griff Witte
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, December 30, 2007; A01
KARACHI, Pakistan, Dec. 29 -- Nationwide rioting brought life in Pakistan toa standstill Saturday and forced government officials to consider delayingnext month's elections, as discord spread over the killing of former primeminister Benazir Bhutto.
The death toll from the violence climbed above 40, with many peoplefearfully staying indoors while others ventured out to torch governmentbuildings or battle with police firing tear gas.
The unrest turned streets in this normally frenetic city, Pakistan'slargest, into empty expanses of asphalt. Dozens of burned-out cars and buseslay by the sides of the roads, evidence of nighttime mobs that roamed thecity in defiance of soldiers and police.
Food shortages were reported in some areas of the country, and most gasstations and shops were closed. With a large percentage of the populationidle and angry, there was concern Saturday that the violence could worsen.
"These are the sentiments of the people. This is their natural reaction,"said Zahid Hussain, 30, a truck driver who had pulled over Thursday night inrural Sindh province, Bhutto's stronghold, and had not moved since for fearof attack.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/29/AR2007122901490.html?hpid=topnews
U.S. Strives to Keep Footing In Tangled Pakistan Situation
By Robin Wright and Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 30, 2007; A24
For the Bush administration, there is no Plan B for Pakistan.
The assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto dramaticallyaltered Pakistani politics, forcing the largest opposition party to find newleadership on the eve of an election, jeopardizing a fragile transition todemocracy, and leaving Washington even more dependent on the controversialPresident Pervez Musharraf as the lone pro-U.S. leader in a nation facinggrowing extremism.
Despite anxiety among intelligence officials and experts, however, theadministration is only slightly tweaking a course charted over the past 18months to support the creation of a political center revolving aroundMusharraf, according to U.S. officials.
"Plan A still has to work," said a senior administration official involvedin Pakistan policy. "We all have to appeal to moderate forces to cometogether and carry the election and create a more solidly based government,then use that as a platform to fight the terrorists. "
U.S. policy remains wedded to Musharraf despite growing warnings fromexperts, presidential candidates and even a former U.S. ambassador toPakistan that his dictatorial ways are untenable. Some contend that Pakistanwould be better off without him.
more . . . . .
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/29/AR2007122901847.html?hpid=topnews
Sorting Truth From Campaign Fiction
By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 30, 2007; A01
Mitt Romney says he "saw" his father "march" with Martin Luther King Jr.Rudolph W. Giuliani claims that he is one of the "five best-known Americansin the world." According to John McCain, the Constitution established theUnited States as a "Christian nation." Ron Paul believes that a "NAFTAsuperhighway" is being planned to link Mexico with Canada and undermine U.S.sovereignty.
On the other side of the political divide, Sen. Barack Obama says there aremore young black males in prison than in college. Sen. Hillary RodhamClinton claims she has a "definitive timetable" for withdrawing U.S. troopsfrom Iraq. John Edwards insists that NAFTA -- the North American Free TradeAgreement -- has cost Americans "millions of jobs." Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr.boasts about his experience negotiating an arms-control treaty with LeonidBrezhnev.
All those claims, made over the past four months as part of the presidentialcampaign, are demonstrably false.
With just four days until the Iowa caucuses, the art of embellishment anddownright fibbing is alive and well in American politics. But the popularityof blogs, YouTube and information databases such as LexisNexis, along withthe 24-hour news cycle, has made it easier than ever for the media and rivalcampaigns to spot the mistakes and exaggerations of presidential candidates.
"The rules of the game are changing," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, aUniversity of Pennsylvania professor and veteran observer of politicalcampaigns. "A claim that something is inaccurate is being vetted morequickly and moving into the media more quickly."
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/29/AR2007122901033.html?hpid=sec-nation
Global Warming to Alter Calif. Landscape
By NOAKI SCHWARTZ
The Associated Press
Saturday, December 29, 2007; 3:04 PM
LOS ANGELES -- California is defined by its scenery, from the mountains thatenchanted John Muir to the wine country and beaches that define its culturearound the world.
But as scientists try to forecast how global warming might affect thenation's most geographically diverse state, they envision a landscape thatcould look quite different by the end of this century, if not sooner.
Where celebrities, surfers and wannabes mingle on Malibu's world-famousbeaches, there may be only sea walls defending fading mansions from theencroaching Pacific. In Northern California, tourists could have to drivefarther north or to the cool edge of the Pacific to find what is left of theregion's signature wine country.
Abandoned ski lifts might dangle above snowless trails more suitable formountain biking even during much of the winter. In the deserts, Joshua treesthat once extended their tangled, shaggy arms into the sky by the thousandsmay have all but disappeared.
"We need to be attentive to the fact that changes are going to occur,whether it's sea level rising or increased temperatures, droughts andpotentially increased fires," said Lisa Sloan, a scientist who directs theClimate Change and Impacts Laboratory at the University of California, SantaCruz. "These things are going to be happening."
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Sun-Sentinel
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/theslant/blog/2007/12/ward_connerly_makes_a_comeback.html
Ward Connerly makes a comeback
Posted by Doug Lyons at 6:00 PM
Ward Connerly, the man who successfully campaigned against affirmativeaction in California, Michigan and Washington, is at it again. In theprocess, he might affect the results of next year's presidential election.
The California management consultant is leading petition drives in Arizona,Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma to put initiatives on the November2008 ballot that would end programs to increase minority and femaleparticipation in government programs and public education.
The effort, part of Connerly's drive to ban race and gender based porgramsnationwide, comes as Democrats have made gains in parts of the West due togrowing unpopularity of President Bush and the Iraq War. Republicancandidates in those states are seen as big beneficiaries. A hot-button issuelike affirmative action is expected to spur voters to the polls who opposegender and racial preferences and would be more likely to supportconservative candidates.
Connerly tried a similar effort here in Florida, but his effort fell shortthanks to then Gov.Jeb Bush who opposed the ballot initiative and theFlorida Supreme Court and its single subject requirement which barsconfusing and misleading initiatives from the ballot.
Category: Election 2008
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Sun-Sentinel
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/theslant/blog/2007/12/a_taxing_proposition.html
A taxing proposition for Floridians
Posted by Doug Lyons at 11:32 AM
Taxes and government spending remains one of Florida's most importantissues. So says a recent poll by Leadership Florida and several other recentpolls that typically sprout at year's end. What's left unsaid is thelikelihood of crafting some kind of comprehensive solution.
The outlook is not good.
Don't expect much from the Florida Legislature. Lawmakers tried,tried andtried some more to come up with a revolutionary way to cut property taxeswithout hurting the services those tax revenues support -- public schoolsbeing a chief beneficiary.
Suffice it to say the Legislature came up short.In the minds of many, thelaw that prompted modest reductions and the Jan. 29th constittuionalamendment won't make much of a dent in how the government collects taxrevenues or more importantly how that revenue is spent. Worse, if theJanuary ballot question fails -- as many are predicting -- it's not likestate lawmakers are awash with alternatives.
Don't count on any Kumbayah from the Republican legislative leaders, HouseSpeaker Marco Rubio and Senate President Ken Pruitt (pictured leftrespectively) this time around. Neither man is expected to make the issue ahigh legislative priority next year. In fact, Rubio has given up on theLegislature addressing the issue and has thrown his efforts into a newconstitutitonal amendment for November 2008 ballot.
Don't look for much from the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission.They've already grappled with that hot potato issue of sales tax exemptions,and the fallout from those discussions don't suggest much political will forenactment. Expect the commission to put forth some ideas to help cut taxes,particularly for businesses. Besides, board chairman Allan Bense has alreadyruled out tackling any issues designed to raise revenue, deferring that taskto the Florida Legislature.
At the moment, the projections for 2008 look pretty clear when it comes totaxes.Have a happy new year but expect the same ol' same ol'.
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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/sfl-flzforeign1230sbdec30,0,101386.story
More foreigners buying U.S. homes: Weak dollar, falling prices attractinterest from abroad
By LESLIE WINES
The Associated Press
December 30, 2007
NEW YORK
Panden Rota, a Nepalese producer of fine rugs, is about to become aManhattanite, the owner of a sumptuous apartment in the luxurious downtownneighborhood of Battery Park City.
His primary residence will remain Katmandu, but his new home will allow himto spend more time at U.S. showrooms that display his rugs and with abrother and sister in New York.
"I looked at many places, and I decided that a Manhattan apartment willalways hold its value," he said.
Rota is part of a growing wave of foreigners who buy second homes in theUnited States for work and play and as an investment.
Cosmopolitan cities such as New York and Miami have long served as secondhomes for affluent and accomplished foreigners. But the trend is growing.One in five American Realtors has sold a home to a foreign investor in thepast year, according to the National Association of Realtors.
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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/ats-ap_top12dec30,0,738415.story
Analysis: Romney and the Candor Gap
By GLEN JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer
7:24 AM EST, December 30, 2007
BOSTON
As a presidential contender, Mitt Romney has the looks, the money and thecampaign machine. He also has something of a candor gap.
When confronted with questions that might conflict with his message of theday or political record, the Republican candidate has shown a tendency tobob and weave or simply dismiss history. He has done so all year, providingan easy target for his opponents.
"If a person is dishonest in his approach to get the job, do you believe hewill be honest in telling you the truth when he does get the job?" formerminister and Romney opponent Mike Huckabee said Saturday.
This past week, Romney did it again over questions about whether he wasplanning to air negative ads -- in particular on the subject of illegalimmigration -- against John McCain. The Arizona senator has been surging inNew Hampshire, where Romney is angling for back-to-back victories after ahoped-for win in this week's Iowa caucuses.
"I haven't made any decisions on what issue ads might come forward, down theroad, but those aren't what we shot today," Romney told reporters onWednesday. "What we shot today was just me to camera."
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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/359898.html
The longer the delay, the higher the cost
Posted on Sun, Dec. 30, 2007
As the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gases, the United Statesshould take the lead in efforts to abate global warming. Proposals to curbcarbon emissions already are being proposed by state and federal lawmakers.Happily, those efforts may actually cost less than you think.
Power plants and various industries, which produce more than half of thenation's emissions, should be offered incentives to reduce their carbonoutput. At least seven proposals in Congress would do this with''cap-and-trade'' plans. This approach allows companies to buy and sellcredits for the gases that their operations release into the atmosphere.Companies with emissions below the cap can profit by selling credits.Polluters who exceed the cap would pay more to offset emissions by buyingcredits.
The cap-and-trade approach sounds good, and it appeals to politicians. Butit is a less reliable proposition than carbon fees. With cap-and-trade, forexample, reducing carbon emissions would depend on how the government setsthe caps and distributes the credits -- a process susceptible to fraud andpolitical meddling. Moreover, giving away credits would reward polluters.Conversely, auctioning credits would increase costs for the firms with theworst carbon emissions.
A better, more-direct approach is to assess fees for carbon emissions, anidea supported by most economists, by FPL Group chief executive Lewis HayIII and by Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore. This approach would impose afee for every ton of pollutants. The fee, or tax if you prefer, would fixpenalties based on emissions.
Companies like FPL, which has invested in cleaner technology for years,would pay less -- and that's as it should be. Companies with coal-fueledoperations -- the worst emitters of carbon -- would, and should, pay more.
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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/360510.html
Peace with the Earth
By ELLEN GOODMAN
Posted on Sat, Dec. 29, 2007
Since this is the list-making time of year, allow me to add a tiny trophy toAl Gore's very full shelf: the prize for the most elegant speech of 2007.
I wasn't sure how the politician-turned-environmentalist fit the profile fora Nobel Peace Prize, but his acceptance speech connected the dots. ''Withoutrealizing it,'' Gore said, ``we have begun to wage war on the Earth itself.Now, we and the Earth's climate are locked in a relationship familiar to warplanners: mutually assured destruction.''
How many Americans actually heard these words of war and peace? The coveragefrom Oslo was overshadowed by the coverage from Iowa. The presidentialcampaigns used up the oxygen that might have been reserved for thegreenhouse gases.
The inconvenient truth of the 2008 election year is that climate change isstill way down the dance card of most-talked-about topics. It's No. 12 amongDemocratic candidates and No. 15 among Republicans. Out of the 2,275questions on the Sunday morning talk shows, the League of ConservationVoters counted only three on global warming.
No political will
Indeed, the environment has made little more than a cameo appearance on thecampaign trail. Climate showed up in the last Iowa debate at the Tinker Bellmoment when Republican candidates were asked to raise their hands if theybelieved climate change was a real threat and caused by human activity. Itgot a star turn in July when an animated snowman at the YouTube debate askedtheDemocrats if his little snow-son would live a ``full and happy life.''
more . . . . .
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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/456/v-print/story/359900.html
Democratic beliefs
Posted on Sun, Dec. 30, 2007
Re the Dec. 25 letter GOP and Hispanics: As a son of and a father ofhard-working Democrats, I take offense at being cast as anti-family andanti-faith.
Rather, we are against giving big corporations freedom to plunder oureconomy with no oversight. Illegal immigrants who work for the wealthy heremore than help the once-unionized work force.
We are against blindly signing into law every privacy-destroying tool thatBig Brother uses to watch over us.
We will never trade freedom for security. That said, it is amazing that weare the only modern country that doesn't make providing healthcare aresponsibility. It costs money to run a great country.
Taxes aren't evil if they are equitable, stringently applied and honestlyused -- there is no free lunch. As for abortion, I know no one who likes it,but a woman, rather than the government, must deal with that devastatingdecision.
As for faith, we were raised to pray in private.
BURTON L. BOSLEY, Key Largo
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